Why It’s Time for Moderate Mitt
Why It’s Time for Moderate Mitt
In the course of a single night, Romney said:
* On his “47 percent” comment: “This is a campaign about the 100 percent.”
* On health care: “Now and then, the president says I’m the grandfather of Obamacare. I don’t think he meant that as a compliment, but I’ll take it.”
* On immigration: “I said I’m not in favor of a deportation — a mass deportation effort rounding up 12 million people and kicking them out of the country.”
* On gay marriage: “I would like to have the term ‘marriage’ continue to be associated with a relationship between one man and one woman, and that certainly doesn’t prevent two people of the same gender living in a loving relationship together having gay domestic partnership, if you will.”
Concluded NBC’s “First Read” of Romney’s remarks: “Last night was the candidate many of us expected to start seeing in June or July, not in September — it was the Romney of 2004.”
We’ve long wondered when the centrist Romney might emerge — particularly as his statement on the protests in Libya and even his initial handling of the “47 percent” video seemed driven by a “reassure the base” strategy that, to our mind, is almost entirely unnecessary.
Polling suggests that the conservative base is — and has been almost since the moment he became the GOP nominee — strongly behind Romney. Heck, even Bill Clinton doesn’t think the Romney-as-flip-flopper narrative will work.